HOME HOME HOME

Wow. Being home may be more of a culture shock then going to India. It may be the jetlag, but it feels surreal that I am sitting on the couch with Max and my mac with a HUGE cup of coffee in my hand. I actually think we may have avoided the whole jet lag thing because we got in last night and went right to bed. I feel great.

I will post my pics today in hopes they load faster from home. I will also probably write one last summary blog after i get my thoughts together. Now i am going to snuggle with Max, then take my first HOT shower in weeks.

ahhhh the comforts of home.
(kinda missing the discomforts of India already tho) :)
Rebecca

We are ok...

So some of you may have heard about the trouble in India... We are not near the trouble in Mumbai, but are being cautious and canceled our trip to the Taj Mahal today. We will post when we know more. But dont worry, we are fine. :)

Holy Cow... PICS!!!

Wow... my memory card is finally working at this crazy little internet cafe in Gurgaon. Woo- hoo. Here are some pics that I have been storing for a while. Of course they cannot compare to Rachels fancy type camera with her HUGE lense, but hey... they are still a part of our journey! :)

This was at the beginning of our journey when we took a night bus from Bangalore to Pondicherry. We had quite an adventure as we flew around inside the bus and caught some sweet air a few times!

this next pic was our first sunset in Pondicherry reflecting in a cool doorway of a beachside veranda.

I can't tell you what this above pic is, but it caught my eye twice so I had to get a pic. Any ideas?

This was a little piece of hevan we found in Pondicherry. Kasha Ki Aasha. We hung out here quite a bit and drank yummy coffee and wrote in our journals. I miss it now just looking at it! Ahhhhh...

A few pics from our houseboat in Kerala ... So amazing!

This was on the beach in Goa after a long day of swimming and shopping at th market. Yup, we really were that sweaty. probably more than we look.

Now I'm having internet troubles so I want to post this before I lose any pics. We are staying near this internet place for a few days, so hopefully I can come back soon to post some more since it finally works here...

Whopsie... we are tourists now

So Rachel and I have been attempting to navigate India as TRAVELERS instead of TOURISTS. We don't ever really know what our plans are and we have adventures everyday. We laugh constantly and both have loved almost every experience we have had while here. Yesterday we crossed the line and became tourists. We rode camels. Yup. Camels. We rode 'em. We wanted to take a day trip outside of Jaipur since we had 5 days to spend before we head to Gurgoan for Stew's wedding. Krisna suggested we head into the desert and go on a safari. We thought it would be an adventure and it was so I guess we got what we were looking for. However, the camel ride was not what we were expecting. We were pretty much paraded on our camels thru the main market in town before we headed into the desert. EVERYONE was staring at us and yelling "HI" with their worst American accent. I felt like a complete tourist shmuck. When we finally left town, we entered the Wasteland of Garbage. It was awful. More trash then sand. Oh yeah and flies too. We worked our way past most of the trash and then paraded ourselves thru slums where families live just in the middle of the desert with nothing. Most of the homes are tarps or straw held up with sticks. Children came running up wanting money. So far, everyone has told us not to give the children money so we bought some candy instead. I didn't have enough for them all so I didnt want to give it to some and not others. Rachel pulled hers out and the guide took it and ate it. Classy muther fucker. I sat on my camel and swallowed my tears thinking I would try to never complain about anything else again ever. We finally stopped to watch the sunset as another parade of other tourists pulled up. It was too much. Our guides were busy smoking hash and Rachel and I tried to find a quiet place, but eventually asked to head out just as the sunset was at its most magnificent. We headed back thru a different path and saw many of the same things. Rachel's guide kept blowing snot rockets and mine just giggled from the hashish. We were finally dropped of on a busy road and no idea where our hotel was. We cursed Krisna for suggesting it and went to bed early.

We met a man at the hotel who we call Swami because we don't know his real name and he looks like some sort of yogi or swami in his robe and ash on his forehead. He said he is working on a major project for mankind to end suffering and sadness from the earth. He said his pen writes his book as he is guided by higher powers. He mentioned that he has met people who are thousands of years old who disappear in front of him and have placed their hands on his head to make him fly. So.... we either met an amazing spiritual man or just another dude in the desert who like hashish. What do you think? :)

So we head to Gurgaon tomorrow and I am just about ready. It will be fun to see Stew since I haven't seen him since we were about 13 years old. I am hoping to find an Internet cafe that has computers that are newer than 1984 so I can post my pics. For some reason Rachel has been able to load her memory card and I have not. It's frustrating but as my friend Melissa just reminded me, I am in India so these things happen. We come home in one week and I cant believe for quickly the time has passed. I'm not sure if I will ever be back in India since there are so many other places I want to travel, so I am trying to soak up as much as possible. I think I am doing a pretty good job so far... you should see the bottom of my shoes. :)

my computer sucks

Hello from jaipur India!
I've been trying to post for about an hour but my computer keeps shutting down. Now it's working but I am too exhausted to say much. We were awakened at the crack of dawn to the crazy pidgeons, chanting, music, slamming, banging and music of India and have been out all day. I cant wait to get in my hard as a rock bed! (I'm serious... can't wait)

Please reference Rachel's Jaipur blog for an update and I will write as soon as possible. http://thirdworldadventures.blogspot.com/ I'm not sure when we will be back online since we are going on some sort of camel safari adventure tomorrow. I'm sure my ass will hurt and i will have a bunch to write about soon!

Palm trees shmalm trees

Goa is full of sandy beaches, palm trees markets and sun sun sun. It's beautiful but i miss India. We really could be anywhere right now except for the cows walking on the beach that is. We were going to stay here for a week but decided to head to Jaipur instead. It will get us closer to Delhi and my friend Stew said it was his favorite place ever so I am looking forward to it!

I think I may have a little case of Delhi Belly, but nothing too bad so far. We think we actually may be gaining weight here! who does that?!? Two girls who love indian food thats who! :)

ok we are hot and tired and this internet place is ick ick ick so thats all for now. When we settle into Jaipur we can catch up a bit more. Hope everyone is well at home!
to be continued...

Brain Broken

Rachel and I are having a break at the Bangalore Airport so I thought I would touch base. However, the adventures that we have has in the past few days will take more energy than I have right now. We are both exhausted after an insane night on a bus, but are on our way to Goa which should be awesome. Beaches and markets and yoga and such!
We did a houseboat adventure in Kerala that I cant wait to blog about. Here is a link to peek at in the meantime. http://www.houseboatskerala.net/
Hope everyone is well back home!
to be continued...

We are OK!

Rachel and I just realized that we hadn't posted for a few days and didnt want people to worry. Things are fine and we have just busy. We are about to head out on the houseboat dealie so we will have tons to write about next post. Don't worry if its not for a few...

to be continued ...

early morning rooftop yoga

It really doesn't get much better than waking up to do yoga in India on a rooftop courtyard with a view of the ocean. really, it doesn't. We went next door unsure what to expect and talked with the cutest little rolly-polly old man. When he found out we were from the United States, he said "Ah! Revolution! Obama!" The Indians seem just as excited about about change as we are. We have seen so many newspaper ads and magazines with Obama on the front page. It's pretty exciting. But anyway, back to the yoga... we followed a few other women who had come for the class around the back and up some old stone steps. The teacher opened a door to reveal an amazing little rooftop courtyard and directed us to lay out our mats. The mats were made of straw and pretty uncomfortable, and the ground was hard and dirty from soot, but we really didnt care. Rachel pointed out the view of the ocean and we were both so so content to be there. The yoga was different than we were used to and the teacher called elbows ankles and toes fingers! We did some laughing yoga that made rachel cry. just awesome.

After the yoga we found out that the balcony hotel was full and decided to console ourselves with chocolate chip pancakes. Yup, that worked. We decided to make our plans to head down to the southern most point of India called Kanyakumari. We ended up going to the train station twice and the internet cafe and a travel agent all in an effort to book this train. It was so hard and stressful. We finally got a non-AC ticket and we arent sure if we are even sitting together. The man at the train station hated us and shooed us away, but hey we got our ticket and we are heading out tomorrow night.

That is all for now. I still cant figure out my pictures, but Rachel's are amazing so check hers out and I will post mine soon.
to be continued...

Oh Rachel...

We decided to get up early and watch the sunrise this morning since we are right here on the Bay of Bengal... and it was no problem since we went to bed last night around 7 out of pure and utter exhaustion. The first thing Rachel said to me was "So that light up there... it's not just a light. It has laser beams coming out. I'm serious. I've been watching it for the past hour." I think it may be the malaria pills, but I will keep you posted. I did have some crazy mixed up malaria pill dreams last night. wow.

So today may have been my favorite day so far, well except for Rachel macing us. Yeah she maced us, but I will get to that in a minute. So the promenade was beautiful filled with tons of locals stretching, running and doing yoga by the sea. What a lifestyle! We found a beachfront cafe and had coffee while Rachel took more pics with her ginormous lens. We had another yummy Indian breakfast. MMMMMMM. so good. Oh I also used my first squat toilet too. Oh the memories. The powerful sun drove us away and we decided to look for some yoga classes. After many of the centers had moved or yoga masters were out of town, we finally found a place almost right next door to our hotel. We have a private class set up for tomorrow morning at 6:30. The cost is 150 rupees each with is roughly 3 dollars each.

We also decided to move to a hotel that has a balcony overlooking the ocean. It's a bit more money, about 5 dollars more per day each, but the balcony will be way worth it to sit and read and write and people watch. We will move there tomorrow. Still working on where to go next, but for now loving Pondy!

So we went back to the hotel to rest under our fans, a tradition we have started that involves removing our pants! haha! So Rachel thought this might be a great time to mace us. She was fiddling with it to try to remove the case (an absolutely awful idea) when I heard the oh so recognizable sound of aerosol. I looked over and Rachel had the classic deer in the headlights look on her face. Unfortunately, the fan went from our best friend to our worst enemy as it evenly distributed the spray throughout the room. It didn't spray much, but just enough to make Rachel's face burn and my throat hate Rachel. We were fine in about ten minutes, but I may confiscate the pepper spray tonight.

We went out again to wander around and stumbled into the strange looking cafe. I wasn't sure if I wanted to eat there, but we ended up having my favorite Indian dish yet. Panner Jalfrezi. I loved it so much i want to marry it. Rebecca Jalfrezi. Just rolls off the tongue. If you ever have the chance to eat this, do it and eat as much as possible.

I'm setting up a flikr account to post my pics, since this slow internet doesn't work well with blogspot. For now please enjoy this video from this morning and go to Rachel's blog to see her pics. Yes, she is more patient than I am :)
to be continued...

Ahhhhh... Just what we were looking for!

So Rachel and I decided to get out of the city even sooner than we thought. We were going to go to Chennai, but decided to hop a sleeper bus last night and head right to Pondicherry. It's an Old french settlement town and is right on the ocean. We booked a "high tech sleeper car" hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah! Well it was a sleeper car anyway so they had that part right. I wasn't thrilled to discover that the bus didnt have a toilet after I had just chugged 2 liters of water. We were so excited to get out of the city we didnt even care about how we did it. We took a few silly pics of us in our sleeper compartment and actually dozed right off. We didnt sleep much with full bladders and crying babies and snoring neighbors... not to mention the bumps that sent us flying! Everything was worth it once we arrived in Pondy. The vibe is relaxed and there are way less people and honking taxis and rickshaws. Our hotel is one block from the beach and we settled right in. We took a walk along the prominade and just about melted in the heat but loved every minute of it. We found an awesome place for breakfast on a rooftop of a local zen type shop and hung out for a few hours in the lush garden. We met a woman from California who has been in India for 3 months and is quite bitter about it. She definitely needs to go home. She was cracking me up with her startight forward descriptions of her expereinces. She also made me smile when she said "You two seem like travelers, not tourists". What an awesome thought. :)

We spent the rest of the day wandering around and looking for a hotel room with a veiw of the ocean. We found a few that had great little balconys and we may move tomorrow. We are unsure how long we will stay here, but will find some yoga classes for the next few days and then go from there. The California lady planted the idea (or replanted I should say) of heading up to Nepal. hmmm... sounds awesome to me! Im going to attempt to upload some pics now. Hope it works!

to be continued...

Wow... India!

So Rachel and I arrived safely in Bangalore, India early saturday morning. That's friday for you guys since we are 12 1/2 hours ahead of the United States. Yes, that's right... we are in the future. The plane rides were long and uncomfortable, but I met a wonderful Indian couple on the flight where Rachel and I were separated. He was a yoga instuctor who lives in Bangalore and teaches yoga to senior citizens whose adult children have moved to the United States. He walked me thru several lessons about breathing and chakras and the path to happiness. I was so enthralled with what he was saying, but also exhaused that I think I may have actually hallucinated a bit. Either that or I spiritually transcended in his presence or something. haha.
Well, what everyone said was true... this place is very overwhelming. People everywhere, taxi's rickshaws and busses buzzing past with no rhyme or reason in their direction. I wanted to kiss the ground when we arrived at our hotel, but it was far too dirty.
So far we haven't done much more than sleep and eat. We accidenatlly slept 16 hours when we first got in which didn't follow our plan to get adjust to the local time. We were up in the middle of the night watching indian music videos and laughing at our stupidity. Coming to this internet cafe is the first time we have ventured out of our hotel. This morning we went to the roof and took pics of all the activity below. Rachel has her new camera with a huge lense so she got some good shots. I think she actually took one of some dude shaving in his living room!!

We hope to head to Chennai tomorrow to get out of the city. We are having some trouble booking our transportation since the trains are all booked. We may hire a car, but need to look into it more. All we know is that we are ready to be out of the city. So I will try to update this as often as possible. please comment since I miss everyone already! :)
to be continued...

heading out the door!

wait what? it's time to leave? ok ok let me throw a few more things in my pack haha. so... i am literally out the door in about 15 minutes for an adventure of a lifetime. for those of you who don't know yet, my good friend rachel and i are heading to india for a month. we are going to explore around, do some yoga/meditation, some communtiy service and attend a friends wedding in new delhi.

we arent quite sure what to expect and are ready for anything. this wont be a luxurious laying on the beach type of vaca as i will be overwhelmed sights and sounds and smells of india. im sure the poverty will be difficult to see, especially as a social worker. however, i have heard the local people can be some of the most kind and genuine people. so i am hoping the beauty of the culture and the wonderful adventures that lay ahead will help balance the intensity of everything else.

so as i mentioned, im not quite packed and needing to go so i will update this next time we pass an internet cafe. thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments! i'm hoping to be able to upload pics too. ok well... im off

namaste! :)